Set a new example of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation
By Li Keqiang (China Daily) Updated: 2014-10-14 07:25Editor's Note: Below is the full speech by Li Keqiang, premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, at the Sixth "Hamburg Summit: China Meets Europe" in Hamburg on Oct 11, 2014.
Your Excellency Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier,
Your Excellency Prime Minister Xavier Bettel,
Your Excellency President Martin Schulz,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to attend the "Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe". Known as the "City of Bridges", Hamburg boasts a unique view with over 2,000 bridges. As I see it, Hamburg has even more intangible bridges that extend to the rest of the world. Hamburg has a time-honored tradition of free trade and had established the Hanseatic League back in the 13th century. Today, Hamburg is known to be the fastest transshipment port in Europe. In fact, one out of every three containers handled in the Port of Hamburg travels between China and Europe. This illustrates the long history and current dynamism of China-Europe exchanges.
The "Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe" 2014 has a rich program, including topics such as how China and Europe perceive each other, trade and investment order, urbanization in China, green growth, etc. I can see from the program that there is a great deal of anticipation for China-Europe cooperation. Cooperation requires more understanding of each other, so I wish to take this opportunity to brief you on the current state and future prospects of the Chinese economy.
Since the start of this year, in the face of a complex environment at home and abroad, the Chinese economy, under heavy downward pressure, has managed to maintain a stable performance on the whole. Its GDP grew by 7.4 percent in the first half of this year, a momentum that has basically continued into the third quarter. Although this figure is somewhat lower than China's high-speed growth of about 10 percent in the past, it remains a medium-to-high growth rate. Worldwide, our growth rate is still high. Given China's large economic size, the 7 percent increase in its economy today equals, if not exceeds, a 10 percent increase in its economy in the past. The increase is also equivalent to the size of a medium-sized economy.
In the beginning of this year and in recent months, there have been some small fluctuations in some of China's economic indicators, yet the economy is still running within a reasonable range. It is inevitable to have some fluctuations, which also occurred last year. And the growth of other countries is not a perfect straight line either. We maintain that the Chinese economy needs to perform within a reasonable range. The growth target for this year is set at around 7.5 percent. I would like to draw your attention to the word "around". This means that with adequate employment and relatively stable price levels, and as long as we could ensure parallel growth of household income and positive progress in protecting the environment, a growth rate slightly higher or lower than 7.5 percent would be considered acceptable. For the Chinese government, its focus is still on employment. Since the start of this year, although economic growth has somewhat slowed, employment has increased. From January to September, more than 10 million urban jobs were created, over 100,000 more than that of the same period of last year. Surveyed unemployment rate has stayed at around 5 percent in 31 big cities.
